Throat Cancer

Dodger center fielder Brett Butler has tonsil cancer, a disease that will cause him to sit out the remainder of the season and possibly end his baseball career. The cancer was discovered Friday during what was believed to be a routine tonsillectomy. Dr. Bob Gadlage found a tumor the size of a large plum in the right tonsil of Butler, 38. Two biopsies were taken, the second revealing a malignancy. A CT scan Tuesday morning confirmed the diagnosis.

The White House stepped up its campaign against tobacco Saturday as a former tobacco industry lobbyist who is dying of throat cancer joined President Clinton in the Oval Office to urge young people to stay away from cigarettes. "It's too late for me, but it's not too late for you," Victor Crawford, 63, said in a raspy voice during Clinton's weekly national radio address. "I smoked heavily and I started when I was 13 years old.

The confirmation came Tuesday, the day before the NBA draft. Walt Williams Sr. Throat cancer. "I was like, 'Oh my god,' " Theresa Williams was saying Wednesday night. "But then they explained it to me. It didn't sound as bad." The doctors got most of the tumor. Chemotherapy should take care of the rest. Walt Sr. will survive, but on the biggest night of his son's life, he was lying in a hospital bed.

Two men, both held hostage in Lebanon. Two men, now free, dealing with their ordeal in different ways. Robert Polhill, released after three years, hasn't lost his sense of humor, despite his battle with throat cancer. Frank Reed, held 44 months in blindfolds and bonds, is trying to find his place in the world. For both men, life is starting over. If ever a man has had his sense of humor put to the test, it's Robert Polhill.

Singer Mary Wells, best known for such exhilarating '60s Motown hits as "My Guy" and "The One Who Really Loves You," was seething with frustration because she's having trouble getting her point across--once again. Communicating is now difficult for the veteran performer because a recent tracheotomy robbed her--at least temporarily--of her power of speech.

Mao Tse-tung's widow, Jiang Qing, has throat cancer but is refusing an operation because it would leave her voiceless, a pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong reported Saturday. Jiang, 74, was last seen in public Jan. 25, 1981, when a show trial ended and she was removed screaming from a Beijing courtroom, shouting revolutionary slogans and cursing her judges and China's current leaders as "fascists, renegades, traitors."

September 6, 1987 | Compiled from Times staff and wire service reports

A deadly form of throat cancer that afflicts people in southern China may be caused in part by two types of plants commonly used in herbal folk medicines, scientists say. The disease, nasopharyngeal cancer, is known to be associated with the Epstein-Barr virus. But scientists said last week that there is new research indicating that chemicals found in both types of plants promote the growth of the deadly tumors.

A government official Wednesday denied a report in a provincial newspaper this week that the imprisoned widow of Mao Tse-tung is seriously ill. "The story that Jiang Qing has contracted throat cancer and she is in critical condition is unfounded," said Wang Jingrong, spokesman for the Public Security Ministry. "She is still serving her term and is in normal health, although owing to old age she is weak."